Intermountain Healthcare is among five of the nation's leading health systems to announce a joint initiative to exchange electronic health data. Bringing together the latest health technology, the Care Connectivity Consortium will allow the five systems to pioneer new ways to share patient consented electronic health data securely, which will provide a model for connected care across the U.S.

Intermountain Healthcare will join Kaiser Permanente (based in California), Mayo Clinic (Minnesota), Geinsinger Health System (Pennsylvania) and Group Health Cooperative (Washington). The CEOs from the five organizations held a national news briefing to announce the collaboration on April 6 at the National Press Club in Washington D.C.

Through the Care Connectivity Consortium the five groups will develop a standardized and sustainable approach to exchange electronic data upon patient consent. With patient privacy and security as overarching priorities, the Care Connectivity Consortium aims to demonstrate how electronic health records and interoperability will help to improve quality of care for patients across a wide range of care sites and providers.

For example, if a patient from one system gets sick far from home and must receive healthcare elsewhere, with patient consent, doctors and nurses at other Consortium systems will be able to access information about the patient's medications, allergies, and health conditions, allowing them to provide the right kind of treatment at the right time and avoid adverse medication interactions.

For decades, Intermountain's systems have allowed its physicians to access health data across Intermountain's service area. The Consortium will use these models of sharing data with other health organizations to benefit patient care across the nation.

"With more than 40 years of extensive experience in health IT, Intermountain Healthcare has been able to use clinical systems to promote evidence-based best practices that improve patient outcomes. Our Consortium partners join with us in having a clear vision for developing IT solutions and standards," said Charles W. Sorenson, MD, president and chief executive officer, Intermountain Healthcare. "Together, we are advancing how health IT can be used to improve care while lowering overall healthcare costs to the communities we serve," Dr. Sorenson said.

"Each of our organizations can point to concrete examples in which information technology allowed us to develop new knowledge, facilitate decisions, improve safety, efficiency and coordination of care, and offer the best treatment for the patient. But achieving further progress will require more than the effort of individual institutions," said John Noseworthy, MD, president and chief executive officer, Mayo Clinic. "This collaboration will demonstrate what is possible when a unique union of forces is brought to bear on this multi-faceted challenge: realizing the promise of health information technology for patients across the nation."